ABC picks up the female-led Greatest American Hero reboot

ABC has picked up the pilot for the female-led The Greatest American Hero reboot, according to THR. The half-hour, single-camera comedy will feature Meera, an Indian-American woman as the lead. The reboot comes to us from Fresh Off the Boat writer/producer Rachna Fruchbom and Nahnatchka Khan’s Fierce Baby. 20th Century Fox TV will co-produce with ABC Studios. Fruchbom will write the script. She’ll produce with Mandy Summers from Fierce Baby as well as the original show producer Steven J. Cannell’s daughter, television director Tawnia McKiernan.

Meera will reportedly be a 30-year-old Indian-American woman from Cleveland who spends her time drinking tequila and singing karaoke. Then some aliens give her a super suit to help her protect the world, despite her lack of qualifications.

Based on the ABC-TV series which ran from 1980 to 1983, The Greatest American Hero follows a nebbishy teacher who becomes a reluctant superhero after extraterrestrials give him a special suit with powers he can barely understand or control when he loses its instruction manual. The original stars William Katt, Robert Culp and Connie Sellecca. You can listen to the very catchy theme song for the original series in the player below. It hit No. 2 on the Billboard 100 in 1981. The end of the original series featured the lead character finding a suitable replacement to wear the suit, and he chose a woman.

What do you guys think of the idea of a reboot of The Greatest American Hero with a female lead? Did you watch the original series back in the early ’80s with William Katt? Is the theme song now stuck in your head? We want to hear from you! Leave us your thoughts in the comments below or tweet them to us @SuperHeroHype.